Warrior Priest of Dmon-Li - Brian Pratt [56]
“Good place to spend the night,” James says.
Jiron nods his head and they begin making their way down to the bottom. As the light fades into twilight, they reach the floor of the little valley and are surprised when they come across a fire ring sitting in the middle of a clearing.
“Wonder who was here?” Miko asks, looking around.
“Whoever it was, they haven’t been here for quite some time,” James assures him. “Probably hunters use this place in the winter.”
“Doesn’t really matter,” Jiron says. “They’re not here and it’s a good place for us to camp for the night.” Turning to Miko he says, “Go get us some food master hunter.”
Taking his crossbow, Miko replies, “Sure thing.” Then he moves quietly out into the woods looking for dinner.
“Think he’ll get anything?” James asks him.
Shrugging, Jiron replies, “He has the last two out of three times. He seems to be getting better with it, though.”
“True,” he agrees.
They get the fire going and have lots of wood stockpiled for the night when they hear Miko crashing through the forest toward them.
James smiles at Jiron and says, “He’s not going to find anything if he keeps making all that noise.”
Suddenly, Miko bursts out of the trees and runs into camp. “James!” he cries out.
Jiron is about to make a comment about the ‘great hunter’, when out of the brush behind Miko emerges a large bear-like creature. A crossbow bolt is sticking out of its hindquarters. When it sees them, it lets out with a roar and charges straight for them.
Jiron jumps to his feet, knives in hand as the bear approaches. Miko runs past them and then comes to a halt at the other side of the camp. He turns and watches James and Jiron as they confront the beast.
James lets out with a blast of energy that strikes the creature in the side. It doesn’t even slow the creature, it just seems to make it madder.
Jiron steps backward, not wanting to close with it. His knives would be ineffective against such a brute.
Crumph!
The ground just in front of it erupts and throws it off its stride. A slug flies from James’ hand and hits it in the side, lodging against a bone. Damn! This thing is tough!
Creating his orb, he tosses it in front of the beast and causes it to explode in blinding light.
The creature rears back, crying out in fear from all the unexpected attacks and then runs off into the woods. They can hear its cries as it continues to move further away.
As one, they turn to Miko who says, “I didn’t even see it. I swear!” He looks back and forth between them and then continues, “I was aiming for a small rabbit. When I fired, it moved and the bolt flew past and into some bushes. I guess it was sitting on the other side of the bushes and got hit. It sat up and roared. Then it saw me there and started to chase me!”
They both continue to give him stern glares when suddenly, James starts chuckling. Then Jiron joins in until they’re both laughing.
“It’s not funny!” Miko yells. “I could have died!”
Which only makes them laugh all the harder. When they finally settle down, Miko is quite put out by them and sits down in a huff. “You guys don’t care,” he says, dejected.
Sobering up, James goes over to him and says, “Of course we care, but the whole situation was just too funny.” He can’t help himself as he breaks into another smile. “Don’t feel bad.”
“It’s just that I didn’t get anything for dinner,” he tells him.
“That’s okay, we still have plenty of meat from last night,” he assures him. “And I think there are still some fruit and roots from Lyria’s as well.”
When he sees they’re not really disappointed with him, he begins to smile a little.
They break out their rations and sit around the fire as they eat their dinner. Here in the mountains, when night falls, it falls fast. It’s not long until they’re in full night with only the stars and the almost full moon overhead to give light. They keep the fire going through the night in order to keep warm. Here in the mountains, it gets very cold when the sun goes down.
Chapter Ten
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